2008 Olympics: Beijing

[Tessar]

She means apparatus. The stuff like the double bars, the pommel horse, the rings, etc.

[Lief Erikson]

Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin!!!!!!!!

HUZZAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

As of this writing, Canada has no medals.

Join the no-medal club. Ditto here and likely to stay so.

What's a gear?

What Tessar said, I didn't know the English words for the stuff-they-do-their-gymnastic-thing-on.

[The Gaffer]

It's great that it's started finally and we can get on with watching the action. The web has transformed it from that point of view.

Luckily for GB, it seems we pwn the world at the moment in track cycling, rowing and sailing.

But I get a bit fed up with the relentless nationalism of the coverage. Check out: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olym...ng/7562884.stm

Amazing action and great achievement, spoiled by commentary like something out of a 1930s propaganda movie.

What are your broadcasters like?

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

The Today show makes me insane. If they interview Michael Phelps' dog, pony, or first grade teacher one more time I'll just scream.

But they're morons, anyway.

I'm not watching much direct coverage. But I consider myself kinda lucky I don't care. There was a rifling medalist from this area...I didn't know until the local news flashed a spot of him and wife. If I was nuts about a 'secondary' sport, I'd have been SOL.

I watch a little men's swimming because that was a family thing, and the men's gymnastics because they're awesome, and a little rowing because my SIL made JO's, back in the day, and makes rowing equipment.

Most of the sports just aren't my cuppa. Awesome route for the cycling, though.

[The Gaffer]

I love all these bizarre sports. They did a good spot on Greco-Roman wrestling last night.

[Jonathan]

Two days ago, I watched as the brother of a good friend of mine surprised everyone and won the silver medal in the men's time trial in road cycling!!

Best olympic moment for me ever.

[Lief Erikson]

Super-cool .

[Insidious Rex]

Im not exactly sure whats going on in this picture but Im pretty sure this has nothing to do with the Georgian - Russian crisis...



Go Misti and Kerri.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Originally Posted by Insidious Rex

Im not exactly sure whats going on in this picture but Im pretty sure this has nothing to do with the Georgian - Russian crisis...



Go Misti and Kerri.

I actually kinda liked that segment.

Bush as a frat boy, or playing volleyball, makes more sense to me than "Bush as Leader of the Free World."

[Nurvingiel]

Sis: Next to be interviewed is a guy who once pumped Michael Phelps's gas.

Originally Posted by Eärniel

Join the no-medal club. Ditto here and likely to stay so.

We will win something, I'm sure of it, though we seem to do better at the Winter Olympics. Since we're hosting it in 2010, we had better sweep up! (And I'm counting on our curling teams to do just that!)

Originally Posted by Eärniel

What Tessar said, I didn't know the English words for the stuff-they-do-their-gymnastic-thing-on.

No worries. Gear does make sense. Sport apparatus is often referred to as gear.

Now, I think Mongolia is just an awesome country. But it's just a little embarrassing that a country with about 1/10th of our population has more medals than us.

Check out the CBC's awesome medal list.

Yes, Mongolia, Togo and Kyrgyzstan have more medals than Canada. *cough* Maybe we can use this to embarrass the federal government to give athletes more funding.

However, I'd rather have no medals than have one of our athletes take his proverbial ball and go home.

The linked story is about the Swedish Greco-Roman wrestler Ara Abrahamian who, after having won bronze, stepped off the podium and threw his medal down on the mat. I understand the sentiment that nothing but gold is worthwhile (though I don't personally share it), but it is unacceptable to lose it like that at the medal ceremony. I expect Olympians to be better sports than that. Take your medal, paste on a smile, and then vent your spleen when you get back to your hotel room.

He said he's going to quit the sport now, so good riddance. Bah.

[Lief Erikson]

Phelps wins the 100 butterfly by 1/100 of a second!!!!

[Jonathan]

Speaking of wrestling, congratulations Nurv on the Canadian medals

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

However, I'd rather have no medals than have one of our athletes take his proverbial ball and go home.

The linked story is about the Swedish Greco-Roman wrestler Ara Abrahamian who, after having won bronze, stepped off the podium and threw his medal down on the mat. I understand the sentiment that nothing but gold is worthwhile (though I don't personally share it), but it is unacceptable to lose it like that at the medal ceremony. I expect Olympians to be better sports than that. Take your medal, paste on a smile, and then vent your spleen when you get back to your hotel room.

He said he's going to quit the sport now, so good riddance. Bah.

Well, to put a smile on his face and pretend to be happy - that's just not Ara's style

To give some more nuance to the story, it should be said that in the Olympics in Athens, Ara nicely received the silver during the medal ceremony (although he wanted to flush it down the toilet). Because back then he had no one else to blame but himself for not winning the gold.
This time however, the judges' call in the semifinals to suddenly declare Ara's contender the winner was very controversial. Ara, his coach and tv viewers all over couldn't accept what they considered a spectacular blunder.
And Ara hadn't wrestled for the bronze if his friends hadn't persuaded him over the phone.

He displayed some unacceptable behaviour at the medal ceremony, but I don't think anyone who knows Ara and saw his semifinal loss blames him. The International Olympics Committee might take back his bronze medal as punishment but he wouldn't care.

It should also be said that Ara would have resigned anyway after these Games. He had decided to quit after the Olympics in Athens already, but when he "only" won a silver medal he chose to continue his career solely for the chance to wrestle for a gold again in Beijing.


[edit] I just read that Ara indeed lost his bronze and is being suspended from any competition.

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

We will win something, I'm sure of it, though we seem to do better at the Winter Olympics.

Well, I already have to kick you out of the no-medal club. So I'm sure Canada will do just fine.

Now, I think Mongolia is just an awesome country. But it's just a little embarrassing that a country with about 1/10th of our population has more medals than us.

I stopped being embarrassed, it's too tiring to be so all the time. And maybe those bozos at home will start to invest properly in sports training like our northern neighours. It's not that we did exceptionally badly so far. There are a few national records and personal bests, the rest is mostly either just-missed-the-metal (several fourth places) or not-even-close.

I had high hopes for the skiff rowing. But ah, fourth at the end. Pity. Although I do slightly feel robbed in the men judo. The other judoka was in error and god only knows why the head judge decided to over-rule the referee.

[The Gaffer]

A lot of these sports where the outcomes are called by judges are more than a bit dodgy. It means there's a second (or more) person(s) who has to perform in order for the best competitor to win.

Phelps was very lucky there, Lief. The Slovenian guy was in front but hit the wall at the worst possible point in his stroke cycle. Not to take anything away from Phelps, of course.

What about Bolt? Was a sprinter ever better named? What would his time have been if he hadn't started partying with 15m still to go? Blimey.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Phelps must be the luckiest guy ever born. Honestly. I'm with his mom, fainting.

[Nurvingiel]

AWIGHT!! Canada has medals now! (Thanks Eärniel.)

A big congratulations to our women's freestyle wrestlers Carol Huynh (gold, -48kg) and Tonua Verbeek (bronze, -55kg) and our men's pair (without coxwain) rowing team David Calder and Scott Frandsen (silver)!!!

Jonathan you raise a good point. He did have a good reason to be mad. But he doesn't have to behave the way he did. I'm not saying he has to pretend to be happy, just be a good sport like he was at Athens.

He is in a sport that relies on the decisions of judges. If you can't deal with a bad call, wrestling is probably not for you.

China, pre-Olympics, was actually one of my favourite countries. I love Chinese history and folklore, food and art, the many people of Chinese background who have enriched my own city...

But China has pulled so much crap that I'm starting to think worse of them. Of course there is the oppression of Tibet, but I knew about that already. I didn't realize how heavily involved in Darfur they were until a local newspaper. They have been accused of selling weapons to the Sudanese government for use in Darfur. There is also their treatment of Uyghurs in Xinxiang.

Specifically to do with the Olympics, they've lied about the ages of three gymnasts (though they're not the first to do that), have had at least one judging incident, and worst of all, revoked the visa of an American Olympian and Darfur activist.

The opening ceremonies alone, while I'm sure they were very well done, still involved

• A Chinese dancer falling from a malfunctioning platform and being paralyzed [link]
• They said the 56 children were of each of the ethnic minorities they were representing but actually were all Han Chinese [link]
• Had a cute girl lip sinc while the one with crooked teeth did the singing [link] (I think both children are adorable, but that is neither here nor there.)
• CGI'd the fireworks because smog made the real ones too hard to see [link]

I really want to Olympics to be over so I feel better about liking China. (I like the country, not the government.)

[Earniel]

Well, sadly it isn't the first country that has a few skeletons in the closet over their hosting of the Olympics. There a lot in art and history from China I find very fascinating. The current regime? Not so much.

About the 56 kids, our commentator mentioned kids dressed as several minorities, not as being from. Could be an interpretation/translation issue?

Saw Bolt's race, wow that's almost unreal. It's sad to note that the cynical side of me mentally remarked: he better pass the doping test on that one.

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by The Gaffer

A lot of these sports where the outcomes are called by judges are more than a bit dodgy. It means there's a second (or more) person(s) who has to perform in order for the best competitor to win.

True. My dad and I have been noticing the discrepancies between how different sports are run. In some there are trials, and quarter-, semi-, and finals, whereas other just have a trial and one giant final. Sometimes the overall fastest times gets selected, sometimes just the two first of each trail, regardless of their times. Some gets several days between successive competitions and while others just have one single day, making the sportsmen having to do participate multiple competitions on one day. I know those things have grown historically, but it's still odd, and seemingly a bit unfair, to see all the different set-ups next to one another on a multi-discipline tournament like this. But heck, I wouldn't want to plan such a packed schedule!

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

I really want to Olympics to be over so I feel better about liking China. (I like the country, not the government.)

Sadly it isn't the first country that has a few skeletons in the closet over their hosting of the Olympics. There a lot in art and history from China I find very fascinating. The current regime? Not so much.

About the 56 kids, our commentator mentioned kids dressed as several minorities, not as being from. Could be an interpretation/translation issue?

Saw Bolt's race, wow that's almost unreal. It's sad to note that the cynical side of me mentally remarked: he better pass the doping test on that one.

[Nurvingiel]

You're right Eärniel, maybe it was a translation error. I kind of doubt it, but hey, I'll let that one slide. I'll also let them have the CGI fireworks since they took months preparing them. They knew smog might be a problem, at least they had foresight.

I can't be too hard on China anyway since we're hosting 2010 and we've behaved totally unacceptably to the most vulnerable members of our society in the name of "cleaning up" the Downtown East Side (the poorest neighbourhood in Vancouver). And instead of spending some money to meaningfully help people get off the street, we basically just told them to clear off. (I say "we" as a relatively rich Vancouverite, even though I was and still am totally against us hosting the Olympics).

So even though China displaced people in Beijing, sometimes more cruelly than we did, I guess I'll have to be a little more humble (can't think of a better word) about it.